German militarization: A threat to us all

Across Germany on placards, on the facade of buildings, at train stations or in the metro, advertisement of the German military with pictures of soldiers in full gear is to be found on every street corner with slogans like “how far are you willing to go for democracy”, “do you have plans after school” or “full commitment for freedom”. Historically, the German army seems to embody the defined opposite of “freedom”; these campaigns are part of a sinister attempt by the German ruling class to create support for increasing militarization.

The federal government of Germany also aims to reintroduce military conscription or a so-called “community service.” While the ruling class parties in Germany talk of “cohesion”, in reality, it is about strategic preparation: German society is supposed to not only tolerate war but be actively involved in it – whether with weapons, on the assembly line, or in discourse.

Already in 2022, the ruling coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals pushed a 100 billion euro “special fund” for the military. The current government of Christian Democrats (Conservatives) and Social Democrats declared in the spring of 2025 that another 900 billion euros will be invested in “military and infrastructure”. Germany is to be converted to a war economy.

In this process, armament and war rhetoric are systematically played off against social rights: While hospitals are closing and social benefits are being cut, billions are being spent on tanks, drones, munitions, and genocide. The stock market value of corporations is skyrocketing. This is class politics – political practice in the interest of the ruling class, using military means.

One example of how civilian infrastructure is being restructured into military infrastructure can be found in Berlin. In July 2025, in Berlin-Wedding, the automobile supplier Pierburg GmbH switched to arms production. Under strict secrecy, Pierburg GmbH now manufactures ammunition components for the Rheinmetall Group. It is this ammunition (and its components) that kills in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in wars worldwide with German involvement. The factory, which is surrounded by schools and housing blocks in an area inhabited by many migrants, makes the whole area into a potential target during a potential war.

War – whether in Gaza, Ukraine, or elsewhere – is becoming the new normal. And this new normality is enforced with violence: through investments in the surveillance apparatus, through media propaganda, through repression of anti-genocide and anti-war protests.

The ongoing militarization in Germany is inherently connected to the continuing genocide in occupied Palestine. Starting in October 2023, Israel has been waging a war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip, which, according to official estimates, has claimed well over 100,000 lives – among them tens of thousands of children. All the while, the German State remains a political, diplomatic, and military accomplice of Israel’s war effort: with arms exports worth almost half a billion euros, delivered between October 2023 and May 2025, Germany is Israel’s second largest arms supplier. Rheinmetall and other major German corporations are earning billions while social programs are being cut. After all, Israel’s genocidal war is part of a broader armaments policy.

Resisting this development is not an abstract gesture of solidarity, but a matter of our common interests: the protection of life against destruction, of society’s future against military annihilation.

The anti-genocide and anti-militarization movements organically must go hand in hand. Coalitions on the ground, like the Internationalist Alliance Berlin, are doing just that, by demanding a free Palestine and an end to German militarization. These demands include:

No weapons for genocide in Palestine! End all arms and military deliveries from Germany to Israel! Stop buying weapons systems from Israel for Germany! Arms embargo now!

End the genocide in Palestine! Demand the return of all displaced Palestinians and the immediate rebuilding of the Gaza Strip! The warmongers, no matter if they are in Washington, Berlin, or Tel Aviv, should be brought to justice!

Switch from armaments and weapons production to civilian production!

No social cuts for war! Money for social infrastructure, schools, public transport, not for Germany’s and NATO’s rearmament policy!

Stop the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity and the anti-war movement in Germany!